KS Dalia Schaechter

The Israeli-born mezzo-soprano has lived and worked in Cologne since 1995, where she has become a permanent fixture in musical life. After studying at the Munich Academy of Music, she was engaged by the Vienna State Opera Studio (1988 to 1990). She soon came to the attention of Claudio Abbado, under whose direction she took part in various concerts. Dalia Schaechter has performed at the Vienna State Opera, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Théâtre de Châtelet in Paris and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, as well as at the Salzburg Festival and the Bayreuth Festival.
She grew into the dramatic repertoire at the Cologne Opera and performed a variety of different roles. She was heard here as Lady Macbeth in Verdi's ‘Macbeth’, Josefa Miranda in Peter Eötvös' “Love and Other Demons”, Amneris in “Aida”, Preziosilla in “La forza del destino”, Klytämnestra in “Elektra” and as Fricka and Waltraute in Richard Wagner's “Der Ring des Nibelungen”, to name but a few. She also performed the latter two roles as part of Cologne Opera's guest performance in China at the Shanghai Grand Theatre.
Guest engagements have taken her to Bologna, Palermo, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (Herodias in ‘Salome’), Tel Aviv, Wiesbaden and Saarbrücken, among others. At the Bregenz Festival in 2017, she sang in the world premiere of ‘To the Lighthouse’ by Zesses Siglias, and at the beginning of 2018, she made a guest appearance in Valencia as Auntie in ‘Peter Grimes’ by Benjamin Britten. She made a guest appearance at the Nuremberg State Theatre as Azucena in ‘Il trovatore’.
In addition to her work on the opera stage, Dalia Schaechter has been working with the folk song genre for many years. Her song recital series ‘A Liedele in Jiddisch - ein Klezmerabend mit Suppenhuhn’, ‘Lieder und Liedele - ein Dialog zwischen Jiddischen und deutschen Volksliedern’ and the multicultural evening ‘Fremde unter Fremden’ were particularly successful with Cologne audiences and earned her high praise for this socially relevant commitment. In 2023, she created the musical revue ‘Warsaw - New York - Tel Aviv’ at the Theater am Bauturm
Most recently, she appeared at the Cologne Opera as Herodias in ‘Salome’, Jezibaba the Witch in ‘Rusalka’, Emma Jones in ‘Street Scene’, Queen Gertrude in the German premiere of Brett Dean's ‘Hamlet’, Lea / Rachel in the world premiere of ‘Mazeltov, Rachel'e ‘Brigitta in Korngold's “Die tote Stadt”, Witch Jezibaba in “Rusalka”, Crispy Witch in “Hänsel und Gretel” and Tomcat Behemoth in York Höller's “Der Meister und Margarita” as well as in the Viennese evening “Im Prater blüh'n wieder die Bäume”.

Since the 2022.23 season, roles such as Hécube in ‘Les Troyens’, Mary in ‘Der fliegende Holländer’, Klytämnestra in ‘Elektra’ and Auntie in ‘Peter Grimes’ have been combined with appearances in the world premieres of ‘The Strangers’ and ‘INES’ at the Cologne Opera. Dalia Schaechter has also appeared at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden as the Sextoness in ‘Jenůfa’ and as Herodias in ‘Salome’ at Zurich Opera. She sings Kabanicha in ‘Katja Kabanova’ at the Bielefeld Theatre and the Staatstheater Kassel. In January 2025, she will be a guest at the Berlin State Opera as Nell in György Kurtág's ‘Fin de Partie’.

Dalia Schaechter has been a Kammersängerin of the City of Cologne since 2008.